2 1 GARDENING BY M YSELF. 



neatly down, but put no covering on as 

 yet. 



I see it said by some advisers that it is not 

 worth while to try to save your own bulbs. 

 Take the good of them this year, then throw 

 them away and buy more, for they will 

 never be good for anything again. This is 

 a mistake. Tuberoses indeed will not 

 bloom a second season, unless in their be- 

 loved Italian climate ; but all other bulbs 

 that I have ever tried will live and flower 

 admirably from year to year. If any of 

 them see fit to abdicate at the summer's end, 

 they always leave a successor so like them- 

 selves that you cannot tell the difference. 



Much depends, of course, upon the care 

 you take. The first spike of blossoms you 

 have from a new bulb, is due, somebody 

 says, to other care than yours. A bulb 

 makes Qiost of its preparations a year before- 

 hand. But while this is true in a measure, 

 its bloom of next year depends — by the 

 same rule — upon you. Cultivate carelessly 

 and you may well fling away your roots at 



